


loss city

by warofthefoxes



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Inspired by In Time (2011), M/M, sort of non-linear?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-15 12:38:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17528885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warofthefoxes/pseuds/warofthefoxes
Summary: Donghyuck's plan is this and it's simple: get out of the Area and move into the City. The execution is the hard part but luckily, there's Mark to help.





	loss city

**Author's Note:**

> time as currency in this au is adapted from the 2011 film 'in time'.

The world doesn’t end. Something else does. 

Donghyuck meets Mark after his afternoon class on their usual spot by the big Acacia tree at the end of the West field. They had carved a small sun on the tree’s bark one day back in June, bright and inviting. Sun because Donghyuck likes it and it was his birthday. Mark didn’t have any other gift to give. 

Donghyuck likes suns and things in the shade of yellow. He also would like to get out of the Area. Today’s sunset paints the sky a mix of orange and pink hues, a little blinding, but pretty nonetheless. He learns from Mark that it’s the only common thing they share with the people outside of the Area - this vast coloured sky and nothing else. Mark arrives at their meeting place today after 3 minutes on his wrist counter, arms crossed as he takes the seat beside Donghyuck on the grass. Mark leans his back on the tree as he watches Donghyuck bask in the twilight. 

“3 minutes today. Do I always have to wait for you here? You’re wasting my time, you know.” Donghyuck berates as he senses him moving next to him. He has his eyes closed still and Mark just keeps his stare and watches as Donghyuck tries to keep his eyes shut and not glare at him. 

“I still have 7 minutes to spare though.” Ten minutes was a rule they kept when they started meeting at their spot. Staying in the fields without notice was prohibited in the Area, so if one of them didn’t arrive ten minutes after their agreed upon time - which was half an hour after their individual work had ended - they shouldn’t wait for the other, instead leave the field for security purposes. Ten minutes. Mark has never been technically late in any of their meetings if they consider this. 

Donghyuck finally opens his eyes and turns to look at Mark who still has his arms crossed, his wrists hidden away from Donghyuck’s peering eyes. “How much do you have?” 

“The same as yesterday.” says Mark short and simple. 

“Let me see.” Taking Mark’s hand in his so he can look at his wrist counter. It’s definitely less than yesterday’s, Donghyuck knows from his notes. Mark steers his eyes away from him, faking innocence as he keeps his silence. 

Mark doesn’t need to tell Donghyuck he gave an entire day away to that Jisung kid who just moved out of his family’s home. _He’s twelve. He doesn’t know how to get by on his own yet._ Donghyuck’s heard of this before. There’s no need for Mark to say something else this time when he knows it’s a lost cause. _He’s 12 and he won’t know how to get by on his own because you keep on giving him reasons not to try._ Mark wishes things didn’t have to be that hard for the three of them. 

“If you keep this up, you know what’s gonna happen right.”

 

The world doesn’t end. Donghyuck’s excitement grows in the time before something else does. 

He met Mark three months after he entered high school. Mark was a transferee from the City, a place outside of the Area as well as above it in the social pyramid. The news had spread like wildfire an hour after Mark had settled in. Just like all things do in this place.

‘Hi, you can call me Mark. I hope we can all get along.’, he introduced himself during his first day in class, taking the empty seat two rows from the front. Emptied just a week ago. Previously occupied by someone else no one seems to remember now. 

Mark easily became a star in the Area as soon as he got there. However, a star in the sense that everyone just kept looking him at a safe distance. Not with disgust, but with some form of admiration. He was _untouchable_. He was someone everyone else in Donghyuck’s class, including himself, had wished to be, at least once in their foolish time of youth. At least Mark’s previous one. Now that Mark’s moved into the Area, he’s just like the rest of them, though. Living and wasting away in time. 

Donghyuck approached Mark during lunch. Bringing with him his big toothy smile and his endless curiosity about life on the outside. Donghyuck’s saving up for the merits, working two jobs and eating less than he’s used to and what he knows his body needs. It’s slow going and it’s hard when he feels his stomach grumble for food during the nights, but it’s progress nonetheless. Proud is an understatement, Donghyuck thinks. 

Mark was more than willing to share. Or maybe he didn’t have a choice with Donghyuck’s persistence. That wasn’t quite settled between them. Donghyuck learns about the technology they have in the City, the ones that enable communication and would have made it easier for them to talk after class, without needing to meet under the tree far away in the field. Away from the time watchers. Mark, in exchange, learns about the Area through him. 

“I’m willing to pay your seconds though.” Donghyuck offered, readied his wrist counter to give Mark the time he spent talking with him. 

Mark just shakes his head at him when he offered, pushing his glasses further up his nose bridge, before he gives Donghyuck a small smile. “Or you can be my friend.” 

“Friend?”, Donghyuck asks. That was something they don’t do in the Area. _When something is not a necessity, it’s considered a waste of time._ They all go by that unspoken rule. After all, one should focus on earning time instead of spending it on making friends. 

“Yes. Friend.” Mark gives him another smile and Donghyuck feels like he should pay him for it. “If you’d like.” 

 

The world doesn’t end. Sometimes things just don’t. 

The government refers to it as the Caste System. It is a form of social stratification that divides the population into 3 different locations according to their status in society. Area is at the bottom of the pyramid. No one can get out of it and move to the higher levels unless they manage to earn enough merits. Time merits. At least a decade worth. The government has assigned pet dogs, time watchers as they’re called, who keep track of the law and its offenders, making sure that everyone stays on the level where they belong. 

It dates back a hundred years ago, when the leaders have decided to use _time_ as the world’s currency. In this world they live in, there’s no money except time and on their wrist - a timer - always reminding them of their remaining lifespan. 

“It must have been nice.” Donghyuck tells him one afternoon while working one of their jobs. Mark recalls his last time in the City, watching the time watchers drag a pregnant lady out to bring her away down to the Area, because she lost too many merits to stay within the City grounds after her prenatal check up. No one paid attention. Everyone moved on as if it was normal 

Mark sees someone come towards him and Donghyuck, signaling at them, wanting to make a deal, desperate to buy him some time. Donghyuck already taught Mark about these signals, but before Mark could even reach out to the man, Donghyuck drags him away to another street, the man lost somewhere far behind.

“How do you do it?” 

Donghyuck’s eyes lack any emotion at times like these and it terrifies Mark.

“You just get used to it.” He says. 

Mark looks far off, "thinking of the pregnant lady being cast out of the City" . “It’s not any better there.” 

Donghyuck gives him a look full of questions that Mark doesn’t think he wants to know the answers to, so he doesn’t answer him at all. 

 

The plan is this and it’s simple: get out of the Area and move into the City. The execution of it, however, isn’t a simple nor an easy one. 

Time merits are not an option. Donghyuck had decided after a year of being frugal that it would be almost impossible to reach his goal before his time is used up and death takes him. Mark has weighed in on alternative options and it leads to this plan: sneaking out illegally. Hidden from the time watchers’ eyes. Not the safest route to go, but no other plan seems possible aside from that. 

Mark isn’t very enthusiastic about it either, but indulges Donghyuck nonetheless. They’re a team of two now. Two can work out the plan better than just one alone. That’s what Donghyuck has been thinking, trying to reassure himself, since that first day they talked about his wanted escape, under the big Acacia tree. 

“The time watchers start their afternoon roam at 5, starting from the East Field to the West. It takes about 2 hours, more or less, if they go on foot, a lot less by car. The watchers stop a total of 10 times throughout, checking the grounds. Hey, are you taking down notes of this?” Mark asks, tapping Donghyuck’s thigh twice to get him to look at him. 

“Yeah, I am. I’m trying to think what time we should leave when we go.” Mark takes a peek at Donghyuck’s notes. There are scribbles, computations of some sort with little annotations at the side, near Mark’s name which Donghyuck wrote earlier, together with the time: _‘5 minutes today, he got me worried for no reason´´_ , the last bit covered with lines over the words but not enough for it to be completely unreadable. 

“Oh that. I think we have to leave at 3. Right after class ends.” 

The execution is not easy, but Donghyuck thanks the stars that at least Mark’s there to help him.

 

The world doesn’t end. T-minus one before something else does.

“You think we can make it?” 

“I hope so.”

“See you here, same time, tomorrow.” 

 

It’s too ambitious, they hear Taeyong tell them when he caught them talking about the plan an hour before their departure. Taeyong is one of their school’s teacher assistants. He likes giving them free passes and part time work after class to help them earn more time. He’s probably the only one Donghyuck thinks of as someone close to a friend. Mark, being the only one who can actually qualify to the friend category. 

“It’s too dangerous.” Taeyong adds a little after, sounding concerned, worried, a little too frazzled but Donghyuck and Mark are so determined. There’s nothing and no one that could stop them at this point. 

“Don’t tell on us, or else.” 

Taeyong just frowns and sighs at them as he watches them go back to their rooms for the last period. Donghyuck hopes he won’t blame himself if things go wrong. Not that he thinks it will, but the worries still remain even with that mindset. 

 

Before they take their leave, they decide on getting a last taste of the life in the Area. As Mark explains it to Donghyuck: “Look at it as a goodbye trip. We can’t be too obvious, you know.” 

Which is why they make stops to different stores. This is how they find themselves eating one last time at Donghyuck’s old favorite restaurant, that had become Mark’s favorite too, after Donghyuck had invited Mark to eat with him, back when Mark was still new to the Area.They ordered a bowl of ramen each, something they’d otherwise stopped doing to save up some some valuable time. In case the planning of the escape would take much longer than what they had forecasted. 

Donghyuck let’s Mark give Jisung a days worth of time without lecturing him about its consequences. It’s the last time anyway. Tomorrow, they’re out of the Area and there will be no more opportunities for Jisung to feed off Mark’s saved time. 

“You’re sure you don’t mind?” Jisung asks Donghyuck, before taking Mark’s hand, which would allow him to transfer Mark’s time to him. His big right hand suspended in mid-air waiting for the older’s approval. 

“I do, but whatever.” 

“Okay? Mark said you hate him for this, though.” Jisung tells him as he lets Mark place his wrist counter to connect it with his for one last time. 

Mark doesn’t meet Donghyuck’s eyes, even when Mark pokes his neck mole. He only does so when Donghyuck surprises him on their way out: “I could never hate you, though. Not really.” Mark stares and doesn’t hide the smile that comes right after. Donghyuck returns it without much thought. 

 

The gate to the City is at the end of East Field. It’s guarded by a troop of time watchers all day, except for when the daily Area roams take place. During that time, only two are left to keep watch of the gate. It’s not even a very protected gate. There’s no other lock to it, no code needed. Maybe the government thinks too highly of their time watchers or they think lowly of the people in the area. Believed that no one would even dare come out of the Area or even attempt it. In that case, if it’s the second, they’ve thought wrong, because Donghyuck is out there with Mark doing just that. If it’s the first, well, they’ll figure out if it’s right once they meet the time watchers themselves. 

“Hey, did you think our plan was going to go as smoothly as this?” Donghyuck asks, as they go on their second hour on the road. He can see the top of the gate from where he is. Maybe they’re half an hour away, he guesses. 

“What plan?” 

An unknown voice asks. Now is the time to figure out if the first theory is right, Donghyuck thinks, as one of the time watchers approaches them from behind, seemingly out of nowhere.

“We planned for a tour of the Area.” Mark speaks up, his voice stern and confident. Donghyuck feels his knees go weak at the scenario. 

“A tour? Near the gate, huh. You’re not fooling me.”

 

The world doesn’t end. Something, somewhere in the Area, something else does.

Donghyuck is running. He’s not quite sure where to at this point, but he still keeps running away. Keeps looking back over his shoulder for a sign of someone else following him. The road behind him is empty. He slows down and stops, hands on his knees, breathing heavily as he does. He tries to recall the past scene. The one, before he started to run.

Walking. Looking back at Mark. Suddenly, a time watcher. Mark talks to the guy, tells him about a tour that they were doing. Mark, discreetly moving his hand to tap Donghyuck’s thigh once. One tap: run. Mark turns to face him quick, the time watcher standing behind him, as he whispers to Donghyuck: “I’ll trick him by offering him some time.”  
Donghyuck tries to argue ‘but-’ , but Mark beats him to it, putting a finger to the younger boys lips to stop his protest. “Go as far as you can. Remember our rule. Ten minutes.” 

Ten minute rule for safety. “If I don’t come, you continue. You don’t wait for me. This is our only chance.” This was Mark’s last words to Donghyuck before he ran. 

Mark never did answer him when he had asked how they’d get past the time watchers. He just said ‘I know how. Just trust me.’ And Donghyuck trusts him too much. 

He looks back to where Mark must be, where he should be coming from. Donghyuck lifts his wrist counter up to his eyes, beginning to count. 

2 minutes. His breathing goes back to normal. 5 minutes. The wind blows hard on his face and he tries to let the air fill his lungs with hope. He tries to think of the plans they had made, once they get out of the Area. 7 minutes. The sunset paints the sky purple today. Purple, the color of Mark’s favorite sweatshirt. The one he liked seeing him wear. Purple, the color of the grapes his mother used to prepare for him when he was still in their house. 9 minutes. Mark has never been this late before. 10 minutes. 

 

 _“If I don’t come, you continue. You don’t wait for me.”_

 

Ten minutes. Mark doesn’t come. 

 

Donghyuck keeps waiting.

**Author's Note:**

> the summary line is how i describe my ideas to actually writing them //[twt ](http://twitter.com/ieekram)


End file.
